jeudi 11 septembre 2014

Animals that don't Exist

The Ever-Sleeping Shark

The ever-sleeping shark,
Carcharhinus dormansis, is
closely related to the Galapagos shark, and only found in the waters
of the Galapagos Islands. It is a relatively small species of shark,
and feeds mainly on small fish and mollusks. However, the truly
distinctive feature of the ever-sleeping shark is the way it “hunts”.

The
ever-sleeping shark does not hunt. Instead, it sleeps. As all sharks,
the ever-sleeping shark needs to keep moving in order to make water
flow through its gills, since, unlike most fish, it cannot pump the
water through muscular action. Its ancestors, whenever they wanted to
take a break, would chose a place with a strong current. Thus facing
the current, they only needed to stay still, and the water would flow
through their gills on its own. The ever-sleeping shark has expanded
on this principle, and uses it to feed, too.

As
the Galapagos archipelago abounds in tricky shorelines with
complicated currents, it is the ideal habitat for the ever-sleeping
shark. All the shark needs to do is find a good spot, with a strong
current and narrow enough so that it can fill it up from rock to
rock. Once it is fixed in to place, it simply keeps its mouth open
and goes to sleep, waiting for prey to
float in. Twice a day it has to reposition itself to adapt to the
tide. Other than that, the ever-sleeping shark barely moves.

Only
once every two years do the ever-sleeping sharks leave their “bed”
for
the mating season, which lasts about two weeks. During that time, all
the sharks release a strong hormone into the water, and the mating
frenzy begins. Jack Requin, of
the Galapagos Center for Non-Existing Research (GSNR),
who has written the most comprehensive study of the animal yet
(“Putain de bordel, regards-moi ces trucs!”, 2006, éd.
Gallipain), says that the mating sharks look as if they are trying to
squeeze a whole two years of activity into those two weeks. The death
toll can rise up to 20% of the entire population.

Due
to its inconspicuous nature, the ever-sleeping shark has only been
discovered during the second half of the XXth
century. However, since then, it has gathered a cult following in the
occident, and it is not rare to see people advertising “the
way of the shark”.